Underdark Utility Rings a Failed Experiment?

With Underdark and Demogorgon the devs for the first time introduced Rings that didn’t feature stats, but certain utility procs. What sounded like a nice idea seems to be pretty much dead two modules later. Most of them see little to no action and the Ambush Ring as one of the last viable options will be nerfed again today. So where to go with these Rings?

Either too good or useless

Utility Rings kinda had a bad start. The Ring of Natural Order +5 never made it to a live build because it completely broke certain builds and classes. The Ring of Cowardice +5 wrecked havoc for a decent amount of time in PVP as well. Its was bugged and didn’t respect the ICD, which was rather bad for DoT heavy classes.

So it seems the Rings were either completely OP or useless. The only Rings I could see people still using are those that grant Stealth Sight. I was also using Ambush in PVE for a Controller. I liked rushing into mobs and launching a CC to get the group started. It was a major convenience upgrade, but never too overpowered. Too bad the devs nerfed/fixed the Ring. I will instantly switch after today’s maintenance.

Nobody likes randomness

I think one of the major issues are the high internal cooldowns vs. the short duration. Nobody likes procs at some point in a fight. The Ring of the Fortress might be good if you could manually decide when to use the invulnerability window. Instead the chance of actually dodging something significant during a random proc for 1.1 seconds is pretty low. Same applies to other rings.

An example that players are willing to use utility procs is the Lantern of Revelation. Players used the Artifact for a certain time to counter TRs, because they could control the proc and use it when needed. You can’t do the same with the Underdark Rings. Either they randomly proc at the right time or their effect goes to waste. With Sudden Rings you at least have the certainty to start the fight with the effect up for 8-10 seconds. So even though these have a high ICD as well, they are somewhat reliable.

Utility Rings and legendary drops

It’s especially annoying since legendary drops in Demogorgon and Castle Never are random as well. The rage is real if you hit your first legendary and “luck out” with a Ring of Orcus +5. Congrats to your legendary salvage fodder!

Whatever the devs envisioned with these Rings, it’s safe to day it didn’t work on a larger scale. Maybe the concept of utility procs doesn’t really fit the game their effects add another layer of balancing needs. But maybe a few tweaks could do the trick and at least make them useful.

Solutions

In my eyes you would need to make the Rings a manual proc. Extend the potion bar (a requested feature anyway) and let players equip the Ring powers there. It would also add some skill component to the game. Either you go with traditional stats or have a cool utility power that needs some more awareness.

The other suggestion is rather simple and has been brought up multiple times already: Let people choose their Legendary Ring. It’s so frustrating seeing that orange in the box and realizing it’s not one you can use.

What’s your take on the Utility Rings? Do you use them or do have own suggestions to improve them? Share it in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.

6 thoughts on “Underdark Utility Rings a Failed Experiment?”

Gotten 5 +5 rings. 4 completely useless. +5 should at least have a stupid amount of salvage value. They’re worth 12,500 to the coffer in Surplus Equipment compared to 810 for epic pieces. That’s a little over 15x more valuable. So salvage value for a +5 should be something like 60k.

I still think that Ring of Impenetrability +5 is not useless. First of all conditionals such as when you are below 25% will always be worth to keep as the game will change and the condition on it will stay, if we will have 500k hit points in this game at some point the ring will suddenly be most desirable thing to have to protect yourself, like people didn’t knew High Vizier or Prophet sets will stand the test of time and still be BiS equipment. For a SW is particularly good to have this ring and I will continue to advise it because when you and the other SW got into damage loop it will stop it at 25% hp threshold which is great protection and gives alot of confidence during PvP confronting other SW, GF or OP as a count to interactions with their auras, guarding assault, supermacy of steel or warlock bargain.

First let me express I loved the market tools you have hosted on the forum. The are very helpful and I wouldn’t want you to drop those due to the recent events and data loss.

But to the rings now. I do use the rings. I collected them from the AH for 2000 to 3000 AD. I placed a +2 ring of Orcus on my companion and the other on my SW. This doubles the chance of the undead showing up to attack the foe. Most of the rings I find in Demonic Slaughter is salvaged.

If you have nothing better to do with your BAD (bonus astral diamonds) you can use that and players actually sell rings worth 2K salvage for only 2200 AD. You can profit 800AD each just digging through the AH. I have a few of these rings placed on both companions and characters, I don’t bother with the +1 and only wish the AH could sell the higher values.

As for random, I noticed some rings will reset on dismount. My solution for manual trigger is to charge the enemy mounted, drop a spell in the middle of the mass, as the ring triggers.

I must say this article is basically geared toward the PvP community. As the PvE versions of the rings are pretty nice and pretty much BiS. I myself don’t PvP so I can’t weigh any input on those rings, but I can see there downfall. PvE on the other hand, as I mentioned, are pretty much BiS. The Sudden Crit/Brute rings on either yourself or your companion are beyond OP. Even if you only have the buffs for 8seconds (epic) and 10 seconds (legendary) they only have a cool down of 30 seconds.. So that’s every 22 seconds, or 20 seconds that they re’proc. With the bonding stone changes, I almost have these buffs 100% up time. I currently use the Rising Rings on Character and Sudden Rings on Comp.. I find it to honestly be the best set up.. Even over the Adorable/Avenger Comp Gear. I hope they don’t adjust anything with the PvE rings. That will make me sad =(

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